Name: Bryan Gruley

Illinois Connection

Bryan lives in Chicago.

Biographical and Professional Information

Bryan Gruley was the Chicago Bureau Chief of The Wall Street Journal where in 2002 he shared in the Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the September 11 terrorist attacks. Currently he is is a reporter-at-large for Bloomberg News, writing long-form features for Bloomberg Businessweek magazine.

Selected Titles At Your Library

"In the dead of a Michigan winter, pieces of a snowmobile wash up near the crumbling, small town of Starvation Lake -- the same snowmobile that went down with Starvation's legendary hockey coach years earlier. But everybody knows Coach Blackburn's accident happened five miles away on a different lake. As rumors buzz about mysterious underground tunnels, the evidence from the snowmobile says one thing: murder. Gus Carpenter, editor of the local newspaper, has recently returned to Starvation after a failed attempt to make it big at the Detroit Times. In his youth, Gus was the goalie who let a state championship get away, crushing Coach's dreams and earning the town's enmity. Now he's investigating the murder of his former coach. But even more unsettling to Gus are the holes in the town's past and the gnawing suspicion that those holes may conceal some dark and disturbing secrets secrets that some of the people closest to him may have killed to keep."--Publisher description.

Mysterious break-ins are plaguing the small town of Starvation Lake. While elderly residents enjoy their weekly bingo night at St. Valentine's Catholic Church, someone is slipping into their homes to rifle through financial and personal files. Oddly, the intruder takes nothing--yet the Bingo Night Burglaries leave the entire town uneasy. Worry turns into panic when a break-in escalates to murder. Suddenly, Gus Carpenter, editor of the Pine County Pilot, is forced to investigate the most difficult story of his life. Not only is the victim his ex-girlfriend Darlene's mother, but her body was found in the home of Bea Carpenter--Gus's own mother. Suffering from worsening dementia and under the influence of sleeping pills, Bea remembers little of the break-in. With the help of Luke Whistler, a former Detroit Free Press reporter who came north looking for slower days and some old-fashioned newspaper work, Gus sets out to uncover the truth behind the murder. But when the story leads him to a lockbox his mother has kept secret for years, Gus doesn't realize that its contents could forever change his perception of Starvation Lake, his own family, and the value of the truth.

Someone is slipping into the homes of Starvation Lake's elderly residents. When a break-in escalates to murder, Gus Carpenter, editor of the Pine County Pilot, has to investigate the most difficult story of his life. Not only is the victim his ex-girlfriend's mother, but her body was found in the home of Gus's own mother.